Meter house



March 1952 J. MILLER ETAL METER HOUSE Filed Dec. 16, 1946 FIG. ,2

INVENTORS FIG. 4.

ATTORNEY.

Patented Mar. 4, 1952 Tex,

assignors-,.. by mesne assignments; to:

standardiqil Development Company, Elizabeth, N. J .,..a corporation. t;Delaware Application December 16, 1946', Serial'No. 716,574

j The present invention isdirected to a structure adapted to house aflow meter ina pipe line.

It is common to the art to arrange a flow meter in a pipe line in'ord'erto record the volume of" fluid passing therethrough; such meters'usually require asmall amount of attention at fre quent intervals suchas daily change of charts onthe meter and" general overhauling or' majorrepairs at infrequent periods. When such me-- ters are employed formetering natural gas pro ducedfrom subsurface reservoirs, it isfrequently necessary or desirable to arrange means for pro-- testing themeterfrom low-temperature atmospheric conditions. The fluid: removed".from gas. fields oftencontains water vapor in addition to hydrocarbongases and under the pressureconditions commonly prevailing in pipelines, by! drates may form if the meter approaches the low. temperatureconditions prevailing duringthe, colder periods of the winter months:such flow meters usually are constructed by arranging an orifice plateor flow nozz e in the pine line and if hydrates form in the lineadjacent. the meter it will give incorrect readings and, in addition;the hydrates may'plug the lines leading into and adjacent the meter andby build up of extreme pressures may cause the loss of mercuryfrom themeter; rendering it wholly inoperable. Hereto-- fore means have beenadopted for preventing the meters from being chilled by. contact: withthe atmosphere during winter months; such means include thebuilding ofhouses tocontain a. meter. which: are sufliciently large for the workmanito enter'when overhauling or repairing the meter or houses'so smallthat the workman cannot re main in the housewhen repairinga meter butthe house" being of. such a. configuration as: to require it; to. be.torn down. before the meter is repaired: and; rebuilding after therepairs havei he n com-.- pletedai It. will be: evident. that the:-construction of. a. meter: house sufficientlyv large for a workman to.remain. in when carrying out repairs on the meter is: relativelyexpensive while; houses. constructedso. that theymust; be. disassembledbe. fore the: meter is repaired and reassembled. when the repairs arecompleteare inconvenientrand. adds: an. increased. cost. to. the.repairing; or the m ter; It: isian; obiect; of the present; inventiontflidej vise a structure for housing a flow meter which; Willf't'llQWjthe. temperature of the. meter to. be maintained substantially abovethat" of. the at. mosphere duringcoldweather, which isrelatively:inexpensive. and. which may baqiuckly. and? easily.-assembled.whentharepairsbavabeeacomnietett.

Glaimsi. (Cl. 220r-328J1 Other objects and advantages of thepresent:invention maybe seen from the following description taken with thedrawing in which Fig; I is an isometric viewof an embodiment-of;thepresent-invention;

Fig. 2 is an elevation or the embodiment of Fig; 1" with the position ofthe upper portion of" the meter house when removed from; the base.indicated by dottedli'nes:

Fig. 3 is a top view partly in section'of an embodimentof Fig. 1*;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentaryiview showing-the manher in which the walls andend sections or the upper sections are arranged with respect: to'thewall members-of the base section; and."

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view showing the joint between thedoor of themeter house and" the base section thereof.

fLhe device of the present-invention maybexd'escribed briefly as:involving a base section am ranged to remain stationary with respect tothe pipe IinecQntaining a flow meter and'a top sec ti'on slidablyarranged on the base section and defining an upwardly opening door whichallows the top section to be slid oifi the bases section without?disturbing the meter when. the door is in its open position. The topsection. and: base section define: circular openings atopposite ends ofthe structure for receiving: the; pipe line and the structure is:sufli'cientlylarge to house the flow meter; while at. the same-time.its: volumesis of the-samei order of. magnitude asthe. volumaofjthe-flow-meter.

Turning now specifically to the-drawing, amine. line A hasa flow meter;B mounted thereon, the

' fiow meter: consisting of a. pipe fitting. It. andeachart box: |;21fluidly; connected thereto through. lines l3;. Itawi-llbe'understoodthat: fitting lilamar contain an orifice enligw nozzle and. thansuch:means: are commomto the; art and. accotdinglx: the flow meterismotshowndetail. The; fihw: meteris; mounted. in. ameter house; consisting. ofbase member C, andatop memberD.

The; base member. Clincludes: floor L4,, parallel Walls; i151 and. I5and parallel ends: ll; amt t8: .End: mem-b ers it and. i8; define.-semi-circular openings: atithe, upper edge thereof lying: on. a line;parallel with thertlongitudinalaaisoithezbase. .2 Upper-member Itincludes :a; root 1:9,. wall 11181111. hers .213, 2], end'rnemher; 2-2and upwardlympem ing door 23; Arranged in. wall: 21' is. door: 24:

" Z3;isahineedqatits upper edgeba suitable means such as hinges 25whereby the door may be raised to leave the entire end of the uppersection D free from any obstruction. ,It will be seen that the loweredge of door 23 and the lower edge of end 22 defines semi-circularopenings which cooperate with the corresponding openings in wall membersl1 and I8 to form circular openings snugly receiving pipe line A. Aninsulating lining 26 is provided to reduce the flow of heat from theinterior to the exterior of the meter house. Attached to base member Care rail members 21 adapted to support top member D when slidablyremoved from base member 0.

Upper member D and base member C are arranged to fit snugly to reducethe flow of fluid into and out of the meter house.

An arrangement for making a snug fit between the base member and uppermember is illustrated in Fig. 4 wherein a fragmentary view including aportion of the upper edge of member |5 of the base and the lower edge ofwall member 2| is shown. It will be seen that wall member 2| rests onmember I5 and, in addition, defines a downwardly extending lip- 30 whichextends below the joint between members l5 and 2| and subsequentlyengages with member l5. While a portion of Walls l5 and 2| are shown inFig. 4, it will be understood that walls I6 and 20, walls l8 and 22, andwall I! and door 23 will be provided with similar arrangements'to reducethe circulation of air from the exterior to the interior of the meterhouse. It will be further understood that air flow around the edges ofthe door may be reduced.

In Fig. 5 an arrangement is shown of a joint between end member I! anddoor 23 for this purpose. It will be seen that door 23 is provided witha strip 32 making a frictional fit with the inner surface of wall II. Itwill be understood that instead of the configuration shown in Figs. 4and 5 for reducing the circulation of air into the meter house, othersimilar arrangements may beemployed for reducing air flow while allowingupper section D to be slidably removed from base section B.

.The gas conventionally transported through pipe lines is at asubstantially higher temperature than prevailing atmospheric conditions.The gas removed from sub-surface reservoirs is usually at atemperaturegreater than the atmosphere. In addition, in long lines it is necessaryto add energy to the gas to replace that lost by frictional contact ofthe flowing gas with the walls of the conduit; compression of the gasadds heat thereto. Accordingly, the gas usually transported, although itmay contain moisture which will form hydrates in the gas line uponchilling, is usually at a temperature substantially above that whichwill cause the hydrates to form.

The provision of a close fitting meter house, preferably insulated, andhaving" a volume of the. same order of magnitude as the flow meter,in'accordance with the present invention, togetherwith the. sensibleheatof. the gas being transported ordinarily will maintain thefiow meter ata temperature above that'which will cause the formation'of hydrates. Inother words, the :provision of a meter house as shown in the presentapplication will usually prevent the formation of hydrates in the meterwithout the addition of heat to the meter house from an outside sourceotherthan transmitted by the fluid inithe-pipe line. However,itwillbeunderstood that. if desired, other methods for supplying heat tothe meter house as by the burning of a small gas flame may .at times bedesirable to prevent the formation of hydrates in the flow meter at thispoint in the gas line.

While we have shown a specific embodiment of the present invention, itwill be evident to a workman skilled in the art that various changes inthe size, shape and arrangement of parts may be made without departingfrom the scope of the invention and it is our invention to embrace suchvariations by the claims appended hereto.

Having fully described and illustrated an embodiment of the presentinvention, what we desire to claim as new and useful and to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. A structure adapted to house a flow meter arranged in a pipe linecomprising, in combination, a base section with its longitudinal axisparallel with the axis of the pipe line defining a floor member,parallel end members and parallel wall members secured thereto, said endmembers defining arcuate openings for receiving the lower half of thepipe line, an upper section comprising a roof, an upwardly opening doorcomprising a first end member, depending parallel wall members and asecond end member, said door, walls, and secondend memberfittingslidably on the base member to make a'snug fit therewith and saiddoor and second end member defining arcuate openings which taken withopenings of the base member define circles snugly embracing said pipeline.

2. A structure adapted for housing a flow meter arranged in a pipe linecomprising, in combination, a base section with upwardlyextendingparallel wall members and upwardly extending parallel endmembers secured to said base section with said end members definingarcuate surfaces to receive the lower half of the circumference of thepipe line and spaced apart to receive the meter between them, an uppersection defining a roof, an upwardly opening door comprising a first endmember, downwardly depending parallel wall members, and a downwardlydepending second end member with the lower edge of the door, wall andend members fitting slidingly on the upwardly extending portions of thebase member to define a snug fit therewith and with the lower edge ofthe door and the second end member defining curved surfaces cooperatingwith the corresponding surfaces of the end members of the base sectionto embrace the pipeline, said base section and upper section enclosing aspace sufi'iciently large to receive the flow meter.

3. A meter house comprising, in combination,

( a base member provided with a-floor, upwardly extending parallel endmembers and upwardly extending parallel wall members, an upper sectionslidably positioned on the base member and defining a roof, an upwardlyopening door comprising a first end member, a downwardly extendingsecond end member and downwardly extending parallel wall members, saidbase and upper sections cooperating to define a circular opening in each.endof the'structure for receiving the pipe line with said structureenclosinga space sufilciently large for enclosing a flow meter.

4. A meter house for a flow meter comprising, in combination, arectangular base defining a fioor, upwardly extending parallel endmembers each havinga semi-circular openingand upwardly.extendingparallel wall members, an 1ip-' per section slidably arrangedon the base for removal in a direction parallel with the longitudinalaxis of the base and defining a roof, a first end member defining asemi-circular opening, a door comprising a second end member defining asemi-circular openin and parallel wall members, said upper sectioncooperating with the base member to define circular openings in the endsof the house lying on a longitudinal axis of the meter, said doordefining a semi-circular opening co-operating with the opening of thebase member to form one of the circular openings and hinged at its upperedge to allow the upper section to slide over the flow meter when thedoor is in an upper position, the wall members of the upper sectiondefining edges resting on the edges of corresponding wall members of thebase section and flange members depending downwardly over the wallmember of the base section to make a snug fit therewith, said meterhouse enclosing a space of sufficient magnitude to enclose the flowmeter.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 926,027 Smith June 22, 19091,715,538 Dean June 4, 1929 1,746,066 Weiss Feb. 4, 1930 1,817,307I-Iaase Aug. 4, 1931 1,883,507 Bond Oct. 18, 1932

